Mexico City's legislative assembly is to vote on whether to legalise abortion in the city, the capital of the world's second-largest Roman Catholic country. If passed as expected, abortions would be limited to pregnancies in the first trimester, only in Mexico City. Mexico City currently allows abortion in cases of rape, if the woman's life is at risk or if there are signs of severe defects in the foetus. Catholic bishops in Mexico have spoken out against the proposed law. Mexico City's legislature is dominated by the leftist PRD, the party of the mayor, Marcelo Ebrard. He has ordered riot police to deploy around the assembly's buildings after abortion opponents promised big protests if the law is passed. Opinion polls in Mexico, which is 90% Catholic, indicate people are evenly split on the issue. The assembly has courted controversy in Mexico before, recently allowing same-sex civil unions. It is currently considering legalising euthanasia.... http://news.bbc.co.uk

Toyota Motor Corp. became the world’s top auto seller in the first three months of the year, passing rival General Motors Corp. for the first time, the Japanese automaker said Tuesday. Toyota sold 2.348 million vehicles worldwide in the January-March quarter, company official Satoshi Yamaguchi said, surpassing the 2.26 million vehicles that GM said it sold during the same period. The results mark the first time Toyota has beat GM in global sales on a quarterly basis, he said. While the figures represent only quarterly sales results, they foreshadow a tough challenge for GM as it fights to hold onto it title as world’s top automaker — a claim usually staked on annual production figures. In 2006, Toyota’s global production surged 10 percent to 9.018 million vehicles, while GM and its group automakers produced 9.18 million vehicles worldwide — a gap of about 162,000. In the first quarter, Toyota made 2.367 million vehicles worldwide, while GM had expected to produce 2.335 million....http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18286221/

An Indonesian court on Tuesday acquitted a U.S. executive and his company, Newmont Mining Corp., of dumping dangerous levels of toxins into a bay and sickening villagers, pleasing foreign investors and angering environmentalists. Richard Ness, 57, faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail and a $60,000 fine. Presiding judge Ridwan Damanik told the Manado District Court that documents and testimony presented during the 21-month criminal trial proved waste rock dumped into the water by Newmont's now-defunct mine on Sulawesi island did not exceed government standards. "There also is not enough evidence that people suffered from health problems," he said, triggering shouts of "Hooray!" from Newmont's supporters in the packed, sweltering court. Defense lawyers and family members threw their arms around the smiling Ness, president director of Newmont's local subsidiary. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/24/business/main2720269.shtml?source=RSSattr=World_2720269

An adjunct professor was fired after leading a classroom discussion about the Virginia Tech shootings in which he pointed a marker at some students and said "pow."The five-minute demonstration at Emmanuel College on Wednesday, two days after a student killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus, included a discussion of gun control, whether to respond to violence with violence, and the public's "celebration of victimhood," said the professor, Nicholas Winset. During the demonstration, Winset pretended to shoot some students. Then one student pretended to shoot Winset to illustrate his point that the gunman might have been stopped had another student or faculty member been armed. "A classroom is supposed to be a place for academic exploration," Winset, who taught financial accounting, told the Boston Herald. He said administrators had asked the faculty to engage students on the issue. But on Friday, he got a letter saying he was fired and ordering him to stay off campus. ...http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-04-23-professor-fired_N.htm?csp=34

A Border Patrol agent was charged Monday with first-degree murder in the shooting of an unarmed illegal immigrant at the border in January.An investigation found that Agent Nicholas Corbett's killing of Francisco Dominguez-Rivera, of Puebla, Mexico, was not legally justified, said Cochise County prosecutor Ed Rheinheimer.Corbett is also charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide. A judge will determine which of the charges the evidence supports best, Rheinheimer said."We have concluded that the evidence shows that at the time he was shot, Mr. Dominguez-Rivera presented no threat to agent Corbett," Rheinheimer said.His attorney, Daniel Santander, didn't immediately return a message left Monday afternoon by The Associated Press. The Border Patrol said it would make a statement Tuesday....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,268048,00.html

Lawmakers on Tuesday were pressing the Pentagon with questions still hovering over the friendly fire death of one-time National Football League star Pat Tillman and the rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch. "The bare minimum we owe our soldiers and their families is the truth," House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said in his opening statement. "That didn’t happen for the two most famous soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. For Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman, the government violated its most basic responsibility." The committee's senior Republican, Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, argued in his opening statement that the Lynch rescue was exaggerated by the media, not the military. He did, however, question how Tillman's death was handled by the military, saying it was a "disservice" to have let "a myth outrun the facts" about his death. In the Tillman case, a key question is whether a military Predator drone was flying overhead ...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18287244/